Disney’s newest heroine is also the studio’s first protagonist in Southeast Asia: Raya, the protagonist of Raya and the Last Dragon, a capable martial artist who wields a whip sword.
Kelly Marie Tran, who jumped from Disney’s Star Wars franchise into the excited world to give Raya a voice, tells Polygon that she was super honored (“and quite overwhelmed!”) For bringing a princess who shared her ethnic origin to life. But, in addition to cultural specificity, Tran pushed the creative team behind the film to make Raya not only a tough warrior, but also someone with a nuanced personality and emotional depth. The management and writing teams were happy to make changes to accommodate.
[Ed. note: This article contains slight spoilers for Raya and the Last Dragon]
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Image: Disney
Tran and writer Qui Nguyen worked specifically to find a balance between Raya’s power and her fun. The warrior princess’s witty comings and goings with Namaari made her dear to Tran, but it was the full range of emotions not often seen that really resonated with her; after losing her homeland, she feels deeply, gets upset and hurt, which affects her decisions throughout the film.
“I like that right now, she is vulnerable, and she is sad and hopeless. And then, at other times, she is angry and completely convinced. And in the end, she shows immense courage, ”says Tran. “I like that Raya, as a character, has a wealth of human emotions from one side of the spectrum to the other.”
It’s a depth that you rarely see in Disney animated films – specifically princesses-centric films, which are generally not portrayed as furious and virtuous. Disney heroines get angry: when TangleRapunzel’s realizes that Mother Gothel has been using her for her magical hair, her frustration overflowing; Mulan attacks his father when he reveals that he is going to join the army; and Jasmine is upset when Aladdin and her father talk about her as if she were a prize. But that frustration and anger often becomes a catalyst for acute determination, not a consequence. Rapunzel’s anger leads to a moment of self-defense triumph, Mulan goes and joins the army, and Jasmine disappears when she meets Aladdin.
But at the end of Raya and the Last Dragon, Raya is nervous. Angry in a way that obscures his judgment. Furious to the point of costing everything she has worked on. So angry that she takes her revenge towards Namaari. “With absolutely right, absolutely, incredibly angry,” says Tran.
Tran combined this fury with Raya’s vulnerability. In one of the first scenes of the film – just before Raya enters the cave where she finally meets Sisu – the hero sets up an improvised altar and says a short prayer to the dragon, opening up about the mistakes she made. Finally, overcome with emotion, she starts to cry. The scene was originally written very differently, Tran says, but she felt it was important to capture Raya’s despair at that moment.
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Image: Disney
“She is in a really desperate place. She has been traveling for six years and doesn’t know if it will work. She doesn’t know if she’s lost all that time. The world is broken and your home, Heart doesn’t exist, ”says Tran. “She lost almost everything.”
Directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada encouraged Tran to leave the book, and the final version of the scene that ended up in the film was totally improvised. In general, it adds to Raya’s personality, but also to the greater tendency of “strong female characters”.
“I think that many times when we have characters that should be strong female characters, sometimes they are written almost masculine to the point of erasing femininity”, explains Tran. “Raya is a character who is technically a tough warrior, but who also embraces other parts of herself.”
Raya and the Last Dragon is available for streaming on Disney Plus with Premier Access.
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